showpiece

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard says the club have gradually grown to love the Europa League after the initial disappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League. After winning Europe's showpiece tournament last season, Lampard and his team-mates were not initially pleased to find themselves in the less prestigious Europa League this campaign.

You may be wondering what's with today's photo selection? I know, I'm usually pulling out
film-based artifacts (screencaps and the like) but today is an entirely different animal. This is
the UEFA Champions League final for Christ's sake.

Gianfranco Zola says the pain of Chelsea's Champions League Final defeat to Manchester United four
years ago will help them as they take on Bayern Munich tomorrow night. When OTP caught up with the
Stamford Bridge legend, we asked him whether Chelsea can defy the odds in Europe one last time and
defeat Bayern in [.

Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm has conceded that the prospect of losing two finals within
the span of a week will be unacceptable for his side after they conceded the Bundesliga crown to
Borussia Dortmund a few weeks ago.

Next Saturday's Champions League final against Chelsea at home is a spectacle that everyone in
Munich is eagerly anticipating but tonight, Lahm and his teammates must face the in-form Dortmund
in Berlin for the DFB Pokal.

It was back on May 28th, 2003, at Manchester United's Old Trafford. A Milan side consisting of
Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf took to the
field. It had been eight years since the club reached the final showpiece of the Champions League.
For a club that had defined itself [.

Set back and bite down on something folks, because there's a whole shedload of Allianz Arena
comin' right at you! That's right, we're talking all 66,000 seats, all 106 VIP boxes, all 9,800
parking spaces (largest four-storey Esplanade car park in Europe baby!

Jose Mourinho insists his future lies at Real Madrid, despite media reports that have linked the
Portuguese manager to a return to England.
The former Chelsea boss was rumoured to be mulling over a return to Chelsea or Manchester City,
should the latter fail to win the Premier League, this season.

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has voiced his frustration at the manner in which Barcelona
forward Alexis Sanchez convinced the referee's assistant to issue a red car to Blues captain John
Terry at Camp Nou last night.

Terry was sent off in the 37th minute of Chelsea's 2-2 draw (a 3-2 win on aggregate) for kneeing
Sanchez when both players were off the ball.

On the day Steven Gerrard scored a hat-trick to demolish Everton, Mario Gomez went a step
further and scored four times within a 23-minute period to lead Bayern's 7-0 rout of FC Basel at
Allianz Arena.

Despite his stellar finishing last night, the dominant striker is in no mood to celebrate just
yet, suggesting that the Bavarians have a lot more to accomplish over the next two months.

Sunday's U-20 Women's World Cup Final clash has been set and after their
splendid semi-final wins yesterday, Germany and USA perennial
'elites' in the women's game will meet in the final. To celebrate their 3-0 win over Japan in Tokyo
last night,Â the German girls took off their socks and boots, went barefoot and did a lap of
honour for the supportive Japanese fans.

Via UEFA.com Spain's Ãngel Vilda has predicted a "fiercely-contested" final against the
"strongest side in Europe", though Sweden counterpart Calle Barrling insists that, for now, the
teams share that title.

A very emotional Andy Murray thanks the Wimbledon crowd following his Final loss to the
Legendary Roger Federer 3-1 in todays men's showpiece. Federer's win makes World nuber one again at
the expense of Novak Djokovic and it was also his seventh Wimbledon title one which I for one can't
see beaten.

"It only took nine years" was the song booming from the AFC Wimbledon end of The City of
Manchester Stadium at the end of the Blue Square Bet Premier play-off final against Luton Town in
May of last year. There was a certain irony to the fact that two clubs from the south-east of
England had to travel over two hundred miles to play a match that would ordinarily have been played
at Wembley.

Roy Hodgson now dares to dream that England are genuine contenders to win Euro 2012, and who can
blame him?

Now assured of a place in the last eight of the showpiece summer tournament in Poland and Ukraine,
courtesy of a 1-0 win against co-hosts Ukraine, thanks to a header from the recalled Wayne Rooney,
and the Three Lions have to be taken seriously.

This article titled "Euro 2012: Holland sombre after Germany defeat but still hopeful" was
written by Amy Lawrence, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 14th June 2012 12.44 UTC

As usual in sport, it's the hope that kills you. On the morning of the showpiece that would
bring together the might of Holland and Germany, the polls in Voetbal International declared plenty
of confidence.

We've already seen Poland's OAP-laden official Euro 2012 anthem, but this
here's the masterpiece that UEFA have chosen to both soundtrack and encapsulate their footballing
showpiece 'Endless Summer' by something or someone called 'Oceana'.

The In The Stands team preview Euro 2012 before going on to give our predictions and thoughts ahead
of the opening match. So after months of waiting and preparation the summer's showpiece football
event is set to kick-off and of course we at In The Stands will be bringing forthe the best
previews, reactions and [.

Greece continue their preparations for Euro 2012 with a friendly against Belgium in Heraklion,
Crete. This match is very important for Greece to stay in shape ahead of this summer's showpiece.
Belgium, on the contrary, failed to qualify and are looking ahead to the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
[read more]

The season has finally ended in nightmarish proportions for United fans. Suarez has lifted the FA's
world renowned trophy that is the F.A.Cup in the showpiece finale. To watch John Terry unashamedly
fondle, slaver and paw at a trophy he never actually won has been amazing and horrific in equal
amounts.

Didier Drogba became the first man to score in four FA Cup finals as Chelsea overcame Liverpool 2-1
at Wembley in a match with another massive goal-line controversy.
The Blues appeared to be cruising when Drogba scored at the start of the second half following
Ramires' early opener, but the arrival of Andy Carroll turned the game on its head.

In September, I wrote how Fox Sports choice to show Barclay's Premier League games on tape delay
was a brilliant idea. Two weekends ago, Fox took it the next level by showing Manchester United vs.
Arsenal live as a lead into the NFL Conference Championship Games. Sure the rating where not great.
According to ESPN, the match was seen by 1.

The Liverpool Skipper has been the hero for the Reds on a number of
occasions, especially in cup finals when he has single handedly inspired Liverpool to victory.

The England midfielder was instrumental in the Reds' last appearance in
the FA Cup showpiece, scoring twice and setting up the other against West Ham at Cardiff's
Millennium Stadium, now widely regarded as 'the Gerrard final'.

Very interesting revelations from Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic on the main reason why the Black
Stars failed to win the AFCON are emerging. According to Stevanovic, the heavy use of 'juju'
greatly affected the team during the tournament.

Ghana along with the Ivory Coast and Senegal was one of the favourites who were hotly tipped to
win the AFCON, however, a shock quarter final defeat to Zambia ended their hopes of winning a fifth
title and first since 1982.

A week after deadly clashes at the end of an Egyptian league match between Ahl-Masry and Al-Ahli
turned tragic when Al-Ahli fans were attacked and killed by Masry supporters, football's world
governing body FIFA has responded by donating over $250,000 to families of those affected by the
violence.

Jamie Carragher has warned his Liverpool team-mates they will need to play for their FA Cup final
places in the league fixtures against Norwich and Fulham.
The club have won the Carling Cup and beaten fierce rivals Everton to reach the Wembley showpiece
against Chelsea.
But despite their heroics in cup competitions, Liverpool have one just once in the last six league
games and have now slipped to eighth, two points behind their neighbours with four games left.